


Eight Days Later

by noroadstaken



Series: The Adventures of Anne & Will [7]
Category: & Juliet - Martin/West Read
Genre: Angst, Arguing, Dark dark shit, F/M, Heavy Angst, Hurt No Comfort, Implied/Referenced Character Death, no happy ending just angst, this is just sadness
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-09
Updated: 2020-05-09
Packaged: 2021-03-03 00:41:23
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 727
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24096016
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/noroadstaken/pseuds/noroadstaken
Summary: Will finally returns home after Hamnet's death.
Relationships: Anne Hathaway Shakespeare/William Shakespeare
Series: The Adventures of Anne & Will [7]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1672639
Kudos: 6





	Eight Days Later

**Author's Note:**

> **WARNING FOR SLIGHT VIOLENCE AND MENTIONED DEATH**
> 
> A sort-of companion piece for The Tragedy of Hamnet/Confession. It can be read alone but it exists in that universe.

In the days that followed Hamnet’s death, Anne waited by the front window every day watching for Will’s return. She and the girls coped as best they could, but Anne could feel the gaping hole where Will should’ve been, holding them and kissing their heads and being a husband and a father. Instead, a part of Anne was slowly dying every time she woke up to an empty bed.

After a week Anne gave up all hope for Will to return after a week of no contact. In that time, she’d gone from sad to simply angry. Angry that Will he wasn’t there for his son in the time that he needed him most. Angry that she had to lie every time Judith and Susanna asked when their dad was coming home. Angry that he’d abandoned her during the hardest thing they’d ever have to face. Anne didn’t know how she’d ever forgive him for this.

Eight days after Hamnet passed away, Will finally came home. The girls were excited, but Anne was furious. She played along while they were still awake, but Will knew from the burning looks his wife sent him that once they were alone an argument would start.

“Where the fuck have you been, William?” Anne asked, her voice dangerously low.

“I’m so sorry, Anne”

“I don’t want apologies anymore. I don’t care if you’re sorry,” Anne spat, the anger that she’d help in for days slowly making its way to the surface. “I want an answer. Now.”

“I-” Will didn’t want to admit the real reason he hadn’t been there. He didn’t want to put his struggle onto Anne who was obviously at breaking point. “I don’t know.”

Anne scoffed. “You don’t know? You don’t fucking know?!”

“What do you want me to say?”

“I want you to say the truth! I want you to say why abandoned me and the kids when you should’ve been here for us! I want you to tell me where the man I married went!” Anne screamed, tears streaming down her face.

“I’m right here!” Will said, reaching out to Anne who jerked away from him.

“No, you’re not! The William Shakespeare I knew, the one who helped me during the lowest parts of my life, wouldn’t leave me like this.” Anne sobbed, wrapping her arms around herself. “You are not that man.”

“Who the fuck am I meant to be then, Anne? Tell me because I can’t do anything right for you!” Will shouted.

“You’re meant to be my husband! You’re meant to be here for me when things get bad, not leave me alone to cope for two years as I watch our son die!”

“Don’t you think maybe it was too hard for me to see that?!”

“You think it wasn’t hard for me?! I didn’t get a fucking choice!” Anne couldn’t believe Will was defending his decision to leave them for what she thought was work. That he thought that this was easier for her watch.

“I never said that!” Will said.

“You didn’t have to!” Anne sat on the edge of their bed and ran a frustrated hand through her hair. “You can be so selfish sometimes.”

“And you can’t?”

“Did I say that I wasn’t?” Anne glared.

“You didn’t have to,” Will repeated back at her, and Anne saw red. She grabbed the first thing her hand picked up, the glass on her nightstand, and threw it at his head. The glass landed against the wall with a crash and shattered on the floor, as Will managed to jump out of the way a second before it hit him.

“Get out,” Anne ordered.

Will stared at her with wide eyes. “What?”

“GET OUT!” Anne screamed, pushing Will out of their bedroom, and slamming the door in his face.

It wasn’t until Anne was sat on their bed sobbing that she felt the stinging pain in her foot, and she looked down to see blood on the bed sheets, a piece of the shattered glass embedded in her foot. Anne sobbed harder; the physical pain she was feeling nothing compared to the burning pain in her heart at the ignorance of her husband.

What Anne didn’t know, however, Will was that sat on a bed crying like she was, only the bed he resided on belonged to their recently deceased son.


End file.
